PepperIndia.com
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Description
Description: Black pepper (Piper nigrum), the king of spices, is one of the oldest and the most popular spice in the world. It is a perennial, climbing vine indigenous to the Malabar Coast of India. The hotly pungent spice made from its berries is one of the earliest spices known and is probably the most widely used spice in the world today. It was mentioned as far back as 1000 BC in ancient Sanskrit literature. In early historic times black pepper was widely cultivated in the tropics of Southeast Asia, where it became an important article of overland trade between India and Europe. It became a medium of exchange, and tributes were levied in black pepper in ancient Greece and Rome. In the Middle Ages the Venetian and the Genoese became the main distributors, their virtual monopoly of the trade helping to instigate the search for an eastern sea route. The name pepper comes from the Sanskrit word pippali meaning berry.
Botany: Apart from India, black pepper is widely cultivated throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, tropica Africa, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and China also. It is a branching vine with a smooth, woody, articulate stem swollen at the joints. A woody climber, it may reach heights of 10m by means of its aerial roots. Its broad, shiny green, pointed , petiolate leaves are alternately arranged. The sessile, white, small flowers are borne in pendulous, dense, slender spikes of about 50 blossoms each. The berry-like fruits, or peppercorns, are round, about 0.5 - 1.0 cm in diameter and contain a single seed. They become yellowish red at maturity and bear a single seed. The odour is penetrating and aromatic; the taste is hot, biting and very pungent.
Cultivation: The plant requires a long rainy season, fairly high temperatures, and partial shade for the best growth. Propagation is usually by stem cuttings. The cuttings are set out near a tree or a pole that will serve as a support. Black pepper plants are sometimes interspersed in tea or coffee plantations. They begin bearing in 2 to 5 years and may produce for as long as 40 years. The berries are picked when they begin to turn red. The collected berries are scalded with boiling water for about 10 minutes, which causes them to turn dark brown or black in an hour. Then they are spread out to dry in the sun for three or four days. The whole peppercorns, when ground, yield black pepper.
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